Hi all,
I have a headphone set (Hifiman HE 6) that I like quite a bit . I've had these phones a while now & they been my main listening source for about the same for about the same amount of time. I have another set of "cans" that are a little more expensive (4 or $500 more) that I played around with , but I kept coming back to the
HE 6s. as they are as they remind me a bit of the sound I get from my Magneplanar 2.7 QR loudspeakers.
The HE 6s have a pretty substantial (non SQ related) problem for me , being my "main listening source" , that would be comfort for extended periods of listening. Hmmm... "What to do ?"
I searched various "headphone forums" to see if or how others might be dealing with this. It seems the most you find on dealing with the "Hifiman" comfort issues is changing the earpads to off brand pads . This helps a ends up improving the SQ a bit but does'nt address the fact that the very basic simple headband assembly is just too tight. The "HFm" headband assembly is about as simple as Forest Gump. It is a flat piece of spring steel that is rolled to a certain radius,padded & then has small "puck" type fitting attached at either end through which the short bars that are attached to the earcup yokes pass. The only pressure to hold the earcups to your head is coming to the top of the yoke. This ends up working acceptably if you have'nt ended
up having to unbend the radius out of the headband because it was too tight. (I'll bet you figured out, this is exactly what I had to do,because the damn thing was too tight). A $1200 pair of headphones really should give you more "ergonomics" options. Shorter listening sessions is really not an acceptable solution so that's
how I've progressed to were I'm currently at.
I will have to throw some money at this roadblock as I don't have have a machinist's skills or access to the
needed equipment but by chance I came across what appears to be a "fix" I can live with . A while back someone posted a picture of an HE 500 that he'd sent to someone to have them modded with burl walnut earcups to replace the stock metal earcups. They were absolutely stunning looking but what grabbed my attention was the standard "HFm" headband assembly was discarded for an assembly that bears more than a
passing resemblance to what Audeze uses. As luck would have it you can purchase a complete headband assembly from Audeze . From what I've been able to gather the HE 6 & Audeze earcup circumferences are similar. If anything I'm guessing the Audeze earcups are slightly larger so adding something to the sides of
the HE 6s looks like it should'nt that hard to retrofit the yokes to the earcups. (I have a Lowes about a half mile from me).
So, that's the plan for now. as the project progresses I will provide updates & photos (I've never uploaded photos to the web , so someone here will probably have to help me out, but I'm no where close to that point
just yet). Oh , I did switch the earpads today to a set of AKG 701 pads. I'm liking the pads quite a bit. The earpad foam is a little stiffer & the pads are also angled a bit. On a few forums some people reported liking the
Audeze "Vegan" pads (which are also angled & not leather, which seems to be the preferred pad attributes for these HPs) these were only $10 less but they work pretty well . They are slightly more comfortable that stock
pads & everything sonically appears to be slightly "tighter" (wondering if that fact they angled is playing into that) .
I don't know what the interest level in this is going to be, but I will post things as I get to them. This is just my attempt to bring a reference(or near reference) class HP closer to were it should be. I would'nt really bother doing this if I believed this was a lesser product than it actually is.
